Moses and the Rock

After Miriam died, the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron because of the lack of available for them. Moses went before the Lord and received this instruction: “Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.” It appears, though, that he did not follow this exactly: “And Moses took the rod from before the Lord, as he commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.” Instead of speaking to the rock, Moses smote it and suggested that the water came from him and Aaron instead of from the Lord. This was the Lord’s response: “Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them” (Numbers 20:8-12). Moses was not going to be able to enter the promised land.

                It seems surprising that this one mistake of Moses was enough to prevent him from being able to enter into the promised land. Two other scriptures, though, suggest that Moses did sin in this event. The Lord told him later, “For ye rebelled against my commandment in the desert of Zin, in the strife of the congregation, to sanctify me at the water before their eyes: that is the water of Meribah in Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin” (Numbers 27:14). A second reads this way: “Because ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah-Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because ye sanctified me not in the midst of the children of Israel. Yet thou shalt see the land before thee; but thou shalt not go thither unto the land which I give the children of Israel” (Deuteronomy 32:51-52). This passage again emphasizes that he would not be permitted to enter into the promised land because of his sin at waters of Meribah. The student manual comments, “Other passages, however, help to clarify the matter. Deuteronomy 3:26 and 4:21 indicate that the Lord told Moses that the reason he could not enter the promised land was that the Lord was angry with him ‘for your sakes’ (emphasis added). This statement could imply that there were reasons other than the error of Moses for the prohibition.” Whatever the reasons that Moses was prevented from entering in, surely this one event should not overshadow the great good he did as a prophet of the Lord. And the Book of Mormon suggests that Moses was translated at the end of his life: “The scriptures saith the Lord took Moses unto himself” (Alma 45:19). So while he did not enter into the promised land on earth, “Moses was privileged to enter a land of promise far greater than the land of Canaan” as he returned to the presence of God. Clearly the Lord had forgiven him for his trespass in the wilderness of Zin.

There are then at least two lessons from this story for us. First, we must seek to “observe every word of command with exactness” (Alma 57:21). Like with Cain who offered “the fruit of the ground” but was rejected because it was not the offering the Lord had asked for, we must do things in the way the Lord prescribes (Moses 5:19). Second, we cannot let anger or impatience cause us to lose sight of the fact that all our power comes from the Lord. Perhaps Isaiah even had this story in mind when he gave us these words: “Shall the ax boast itself against him that heweth therewith? Shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? As if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself as if it were no wood!” (2 Nephi 20:15) Moses, in a moment of weakness, forgot that his power to give the people the water was not in him. Just as the rod couldn’t claim it had brought forth the water without recognizing the hand that lifted it, neither could Moses make the claim that he and Aaron did it either without recognizing the Lord who gave them power.